OUR HEART

For me, coffee has always been about the experience.  The feel of my hands wrapped around a warm mug, eye to eye with someone across the table, good conversation making its way through swirling steam, a travel mug in hand while exploring a new city or just the smell of a fresh brew mixed with a good book or my journal on a quiet morning.

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And now it has become even more than that.

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We know that there are a plethora of places you can go to find yourself a great cup of coffee, so why choose Wild Ginger?  

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Well, while some people call it vision, we call it our heart.  And our heart is for so much more than just a great cup of coffee.   

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Our heart is to create a business that does good.  Not just good for us and our community, but good for everyone along the way from farmer to exporter, barista to consumer, and especially women trapped in and transitioning out of the sex industry.  

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It is not enough to put a fair trade stamp on it and call it good.  Though it is a great place to start, we would want more than that for our families, and so we work towards more than that by insisting on Transparent Trade as a way to encourage really knowing and understanding our impact, rather then simply assuming it. 

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Why is this important?  Why don't we just find the cheapest coffee we can so we can give more money away?

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We believe that to fight exploitation in the form of survivor care and support while simultaneously supporting an industry drenched in slavery and oppression that makes the vulnerable more susceptible to exploitation is redundant.  Operating our business with integrity means doing our best to make decisions and sell products that honor the maker and provide income to create lasting, positive change in the lives of the exploited.

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Our coffee isn't cheap, but neither are lives.​

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At Wild Ginger Coffee, we would rather sell less coffee at a higher price

than dishonor our people

by treating them less than we would want to be treated in order to turn a bigger profit.

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Don’t misunderstand me, we are not so naïve as to believe that we have the answer to human trafficking, but we are audacious enough to believe in the power of one.  That if we can use a cup of coffee, grown ethically by our global family, sold in our community, to give one woman the chance to live a life of dignity and freedom, it is worth it.

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Human trafficking continues to exist for many reasons, but I think the biggest is dehumanization.  If we see each other and ourselves as people instead of products we will treat the same as priceless parts of our communities not as profitable commodities.   

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Wild Ginger Coffee is not committed to changing the world,

but to transforming the lives of individuals through relational and sustainable business practices and using their profits to fund projects that will build up and equip women exiting the sex industry.

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For now, that looks like building consistent and authentic relationships with our global and local coffee providers, vendors and customers.  Selling only ethically sourced products, including our merch which also provides jobs for survivors! 

It looks like committing a percentage of our profits to local and global initiatives directly involved in reaching out to those in and vulnerable to human trafficking, and using story and conversation to inspire others to get involved through our podcast.

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You can follow our Instagram page @wildgingercoffee for updates and to keep tabs on what’s up and coming for us.

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Thank you for taking the time to hear our heart. 

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It’s not all tidy and perfect.  We certainly don’t have it all figured out yet — this one-step-at-a-time thing can be a little tedious — but we are so excited to bring you Wild Ginger Coffee and to see lives wildly transformed and people set free.

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- The Wild Ginger